Showing posts with label want. Show all posts
Showing posts with label want. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

To Keep Want's Wish-list Undeterred


This may look like a common to-do list, 
but there is an underlying wish-list/prayer
that, in all I (we) do,
to be a (broken, mended, scarred and chipped)
vessel God's love pours through...

Dear Lord,

Not one step do I want to dare
To take outside Thy tender care
Nor do I want to boast, save in
Thy Son, who broke the curse of sin

Let me not treasure any Thing
Above my Savior's suffering
Who, on the cross of Calvary

Let me pursue no fonder goal
Than the dwelling place of my soul
And let me crave nothing above
A heart, through which You pour Your love

...to kindle delight in Your Word
To keep Want’s wish-list undeterred
Desiring that in all I do
Your Light of 'Christ in me', shines through

That, 'thanks to God who always leads'
Your faithful triumph intercedes
For I am nothing on my own
Then, let me live for You alone
Amen

© Janet Martin

Let your light so shine before men, 
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matt.5:16

Outdoor chores are taking priority these day!
Yesterday I pulled the sunflowers, prepping the garden for the neighbor to haul fertilizer,
 aka manure 😉on it whenever he is ready!
But, not wanting to discard of this beautiful, bountiful buffet for the birds 
the fence offers a perfect prop for non-stop feeding and
viewing pleasure!





Sometimes my husband calls to see what I am working on..
He wondered, this morning, where today's poem-inspiration came from.
Partly from this devotion in my Utmost for His Highest...



Monday, November 21, 2022

My 'I Shall Not Want' Want-list


I want to see the beauty in each day that He has made...



Our world is completely winterized where only two weeks ago 
I took a long walk admiring the remnant foliage of fall...



And just like that, with the snow
thoughts of Christmas start to take center stage
where want and wish lists also begin to take shape...

While gifts are nice and delightful expressions of love,
as we grow older, we realize more and more
 that what satisfies our Want cannot be unwrapped from
pretty paper and ribbons.

The Lord is my Shepherd.
I shall not want...
Ps. 23:1

Without refreshment and renewal found in God's Word alone.
our want lists are apt to run a bit askew,
and discouragement would drain
our 'joy complete'

John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. 
Now remain in my love. 
10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,
 just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you 
and that your joy may be complete.








To remember the empty tomb: Christ conquered death and hell


And when I die, I want to hear the sweetest words I know

© Janet Martin

Monday, January 17, 2022

Want-list...


The changing views due to the changing hues of twilight helped me finish
this poem; one I doodled at here and there all day long...
The backdrop changed dramatically in a matter of 10-20 minutes!





I want to marvel every day at ways that never lose their wonder!

I want to marvel still where wonder’s thrill never grows old
To feel hope’s joy in dawn’s ahoy whether of gray or gold
To make the best of moments lest when life’s last drop is poured
I weep because for all that was, regret is my reward

From Mercy’s fount I want to count the goodness-es of God
And never taint with rude complaint and thanklessness, His laud
But recognize the precious prize each morning ushers in
Then, be renewed with gratitude for forgiveness of sin

I want to give this life I live love’s careful, prayerful thought
Not to lament with discontentment for what I have not
But to embrace each day of grace with holy diligence
And live without shadows of doubt to cloud love’s reverence

I want to work and not to shirk the duties of the day
But to behold God’s manifold beauties along life’s way
And know His love will grant enough to satisfy my soul
And not to fret and thus forget that He is in control

I want to sing and ever bring an offering of praise
To He who cups life’s downs and ups in Higher Thoughts and Ways
And thrill anew ‘neath heaven’s blue and rose-tinted ramparts
Constantly awed at the way God captures, enraptures hearts

I want to stand on twilight’s strand where shadows sprawl like piers
And feel toil’s rush yield to the hush as daylight disappears
And marvel still where wonder’s thrill never runs out of ways
To cheer, delight, enthrall, excite, inspire and amaze

© Janet Martin











Thursday, February 6, 2020

Hope-Mercy's Meanwhile...

Hope is so intricately interwoven with faith it's hard to separate the two...
I have things I wish for but until the wish turns into purposed hope 
there is little chance of the wish ever being more than fickle fancy.
There's a big difference between
'I wish for a trip to Europe' and 'I hope for a trip to Europe'! 😊 

In the Meanwhile, like a less-than-graceful ballerina,
I balance on Now's bit of broken beautiful
and bring glory to the Giver!


Hope holds a world of ambition and advent
It fuels purpose to pursue a goal
It dares to dream without discontentment
It wears the wish without want’s gaping hole

Hope feels its way through those rooms without windows
It finds the ray of light piercing the dark
It dares to dance in a ballroom of shadows
It kindles courage if but with a spark

Hope hears the whispers of God in faith’s orbit
It does not fret when ‘Not Yet’ leads its charge
It dares to nibble at the dangling carrot
and waits, while learning to live and love large

Hope cheers us onward without force or menace
It is the phoenix that bolsters these bones
It teaches us to take that which confronts us
And turn broken bricks into stepping stones

Hope is a hug when life feels hard to handle
It hails from heaven with beauty’s bravo
Hope is the flame that flickers on a candle
No matter how hard conflicting gales blow

Hope does not wallow without rhyme or reason
It does not drift without eyes on a goal
Hope is a flower without stem or season
It is a garden that blooms in the soul

© Janet Martin

 Isaiah 40:31 
 But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; 
they will run and not grow weary, 
they will walk and not be faint.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The Perfect Want...


With always lots to tend to in an ever-aging body and mind
 it sometimes leaves this poet’s heart a little frayed with want
for an art that here and there needs more than a haphazard or hurried splash.
I just finished reading the book Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
I love books about people who understand the ‘need’ to write;
how this hunger howls for release and even writing does not always fill it
because so little of what we write seems to come out exactly like we wish!
Still, to everything there is a time and a season
and I want to want to honour the Giver in each season.
 He knows the heart of every single one of us and
He grants grace to proceed and succeed to everyone who asks.

Let our goal then be to seek God first to glorify
for what we seek to please our self will never satisfy 

One of last week's devotions has stayed stuck, hopefully not just in my head...


I never want to live as if I was the first in line
But rather, blend into the place God willed in His design
That always bids us look to interests of fellowman
And love each other humbly, holy ev’ry way we can

I never want to hunger for some self-indulgent Then
But learn to live like Jesus did when He walked among men
The King of kings took on himself the form of servant meek
And taught us with more than mere words to turn the other cheek

I never want to worship ‘the created’ rather than
The One by whom all things were made according to His plan
Thus in this little time I have before death plays its part
Lord, let me want the beauty of a truly tender heart

© Janet Martin



Saturday, November 30, 2019

Well We Know...or Are Learning To Know




Want without Jesus,will never be filled
Its tempest of longing will never be stilled



Acts. 4:12
 Salvation is found in no one else, 
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind 
by which we must be saved."

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, 
because He will save His people from their sins."
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him 
that everyone who believes in Him 
receives forgiveness of sins through His name."

A song to satisfy Want...

 

This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9

Well we know want wars with gladness
Haunts the hope that shores the heart
Daunts desire with deep sadness
And dejection’s stinging smart

Well the struggle for survival
Without God hones hard defeat
Joy, a sympathetic rival
Or a laughing hypocrite

Well we know we know so little
Save what we learn from the past
While the frond of youth grows brittle
As the bond of Truth holds fast

Well the trouble we encounter
Taunts the apple of Want's gain
Faith subjects us to a future
Where sight-blind we peer in vain

Well we know Want’s wage is worry
If we forge forth without God
His great timing none can hurry
Beneath Mercy’s bitter rod

Well we know Want is oft smitten
With the shallow scope of gaze
While the prize of hope is hidden
In God’s higher, perfect ways

Well we know heads full of knowledge
Fill rooms with noise-metered mist
If the heart is but a college
For the want-worn narcissist

© Janet Martin